“Madame la Guillotine is the younger sister, the ideological sibling of the 2nd Amendment; both were conceived of a need to purge overbearing governments.”
“Our society is in the midst of mental slavery, on the cusp of physical. We are the checks and balances of society…Revolutions begin here.”—- Alexander”
“[A]ll of the experiments in government from below, whether during the U.S. Revolution or recently in Oaxaca, were shortlived. They would be deemed to be failures by many but the very fact that they happened at all makes them small victories. [W]e must maintain the necessary humility to work out how to make these dreams more lasting, first of all by working together and combining what is best from the anarchist and Marxist traditions. Yet it is still important to remember the victories and the people who made them.”
“The change of the system is a weak revolution; whereas, the changing of the thoughts is a great revolution. It prevails.”
“Idge says that there are moments when revolution is possible. Most of the time, we’re all – everyone, from the poorest beggar out there to the Patros on his golden throne – caught in the gears, controlled by these invisible forces, and if we act against them we’re crushed. But there are moments when things can change, when the forces balance and it’s possible for people – individual people – to make a big difference. To – realign things. Remake the world.”
“The system is corrupt, a young man on a bicycle shouted, and if it cannot be changed it must be destroyed. The mastodon revolution is here and you must all choose which side of history you want to be on.”
“The modern world is insanity disguised as progress.”
“He was walking over toward the West Side, aimlessly at first, and then at times with the longing to do something to save those mistaken men from themselves forming itself into a purpose. Was not that what she meant when she bewailed her woman s helplessness? She must have wished him to try if he, being a man, could not do something; or if she did not, still he would try, and if she heard of it she would recall what she had said and would be glad he had understood her so. Thinking of her pleasure in what he was going to do, he forgot almost what it was; but when he came to a street-car track he remembered it, and looked up and down to see if there were any turbulent gathering of men whom he might mingle with and help to keep from violence. He saw none anywhere; and then suddenly, as if at the same moment, for in his exalted mood all events had a dream-like simultaneity, he stood at the corner of an avenue, and in the middle of it, a little way off, was a street-car, and around the car a tumult of shouting, cursing, struggling men. The driver was lashing his horses forward, and a policeman was at their heads, with the conductor, pulling them; stones, clubs, brickbats hailed upon the car, the horses, the men trying to move them. The mob closed upon them in a body, and then a patrol-wagon whirled up from the other side, and a squad of policemen leaped out and began to club the rioters. Conrad could see how they struck them under the rims of their hats; the blows on their skulls sounded as if they had fallen on stone; the rioters ran in all directions. One of the officers rushed up toward the corner where Conrad stood, and then he saw at his side a tall, old man, with a long, white beard, who was calling out at the policemen: Ah, yes! Glup the strikerss—gif it to them! Why don t you co and glup the bresidents that insoalt your lawss, and gick your Boart of Arpidration out-of-toors? Glup the strikerss—they cot no friendts! They cot no money to pribe you, to dreat you! The officer lifted his club, and the old man threw his left arm up to shield his head. Conrad recognized Lindau, and now he saw the empty sleeve dangle in the air over the stump of his wrist. He heard a shot in that turmoil beside the car, and something seemed to strike him in the breast. He was going to say to the policeman: Don t strike him! He s an old soldier! You see he has no hand! but he could not speak, he could not move his tongue. The policeman stood there; he saw his face: it was not bad, not cruel; it was like the face of a statue, fixed, perdurable—a mere image of irresponsible and involuntary authority. Then Conrad fell forward, pierced through the heart by that shot fired from the car. March heard the shot as he scrambled out of his car, and at the same moment he saw Lindau drop under the club of the policeman, who left him where he fell and joined the rest of the squad in pursuing the rioters. The fighting round the car in the avenue ceased; the driver whipped his horses into a gallop, and the place was left empty. March would have liked to run; he thought how his wife had implored him to keep away from the rioting; but he could not have left Lindau lying there if he would. Something stronger than his will drew him to the spot, and there he saw Conrad, dead beside the old man.”
“Revolutions are necessary, but they seldom justify the cost in human lives.”
“We don’t want any of that; said N’Dolo, jerking his head in their direction. We don’t want to go on being the world’s zoo, we want factories and tractors instead of lions and elephants. We must first get rid of colonialism, which delights in this exotic .stagnation, the principal advantage of which is that it produces cheap labor. We must get rid of that at all costs, and then, with the same energy and freedom from sentimentality, get down to indoctrinating the masses: crush out the tribal past, hammer the new political ideas, by every means, into brains darkened by primitive traditions. A period of dictatorship was of course indispensable, for the masses were not ready to take control; Ataturk’s experiment in Turkey and Stalin’s in Russia were historically justified. Morel listened calmly; he had long ceased to have any illusions about what was in store for Africa.”
“Revolutions are necessary, but they are seldom justified.”
“There is no revolution like repentence.”
“The unraveling of civilization doesn’t require armies or revolutions. All that is required is for one too many people to be looking the wrong way at the wrong time.”
“There as yet to be a revolution where those who served it have not eventually been eaten”
“Dissatisfaction produces movement. A movement turns into Revolution when it is suppressed. असंतोष आन्दोलन को जन्म देता है और आन्दोलन का उन्नमूलन क्रांति को ! © Sharad Kashyap 07 Jan 2020”
“Even the farthest seers can t bend their gaze beyond their era s horizon of possibility, but the horizon shifts with each incremental revolution as the human mind peers outward to take in nature, then turns inward to question its own givens. We sieve the world through the mesh of these certitudes, tautened by nature and culture, but every once in a while—whether by accident or conscious effort—the wire loosens and the kernel of revolution slips through.”
“كنتُ أصنع لهم الجحيم، لأبني جنّتي. لكنّني أزورهم كل يوم، وأعيش معهم بنصف يومي. إنّ هذه الأرواح لم تمُت تمامًا، ستصحو لتفتك بي”